Pumpkin

Reviewed by Aricson Tarasova
December 5, 2005

Director: Adam Larson Broder & Tony R. Abrams Studio: MGM/United Artists/American Zoetrope MPAA Rating: R Review Rating: 5 out of 10

Christina Ricci plays Carolyn McDuffy; a preppy sorority girl who falls in love with her mentally and physically disabled charity case Pumpkin Romanoff, played by Hank Harris. Pumpkin immediately falls in love with Carolyn upon their first introduction at a training camp for ‘Challenged' athletes volunteered by Carolyn's hypocritical sorority house. His love for Carolyn inspires Pumpkin to challenge the limitation of his disabilities and he begins to grow. Carolyn on the other hand takes an emotional and social nosedive by her conflicted romantic feelings for Pumpkin.

Pumpkin is clichéd and predictable with a messy narrative. The characters and direction do not come across as believable but rather two-dimensional comic book renderings with an amateur execution. The choice of actors, the characters themselves and environments in the film have a stylized pretense that tries to appeal as something hip or cool at the cost of its integrity and above all, a loss of a personal suspension of disbelief.

The nature of Pumpkin as a mythological fantasy is much more appealing to young adults, especially females. The points that I argue as defects in the film are elements of ‘style' to an audience. A younger audience can perhaps identify with the themes of the Cinderella and Oedipus emotional transformations the two characters embody while in the safety context of a fantasy façade. Pumpkin does offer its young audience some elements of eroticism and wit within its gaudy paradigms.

Pumpkin as an artistic narrative is handicapped (shameless pun intended). But if you're young and female, go give it a rent and enjoy the exploration of dating someone who would romantically repulse you in real life. Yes, that does sound shallow and immature, but who is this film's target audience again? Ouch, I can already feel the hate vectors from Pumpkin fans.

I must give Pumpkin a split Evolution Rating because this film is limited to the admiration of its young adult audience while it cannot effectively communicate beyond Gen Y. If you're apart of Gen X or a Baby Boomer, I give it a Low Evolution factor and a minus point or two from my review rating. If you're at a high school/college age, I give Pumpkin a Medium Evolution factor and add one to two points extra on my review rating.